How-to: Trailer Light Wiring

[philipa_240sx]

For all those who wish to add trailer light wiring to thier Rogue using an aftermarket trailer light converter. This information will apply to all S, SL models without a factory installed trailer harness. Those with 'trailer pre-wiring' may be different.

You will need the following parts & tools:

- trailer light converter like Drawtite model #119175.- male blade style quick disconnects- metric ratchet set & misc hand tools like screwdrivers, etc- Soldering iron & solder for the connections or optionally 'Scotch-Loc' style crimp connectors (these are much easier IMHO)- a voltmeter or automotive tester (optional)

1) First off, remove everything from the cargo area.

2) Remove the cargo organizer (if you have one), jack and tools. Page 6-4 in the owners manual gives instructions for this.

3) Remove the side cargo bins & jack storage by removing the 3 bolts that hold them in place. The bins are held by small tabs and you need to slide them towards the middle before you can then lift them out.

4) Remove the metal cargo hooks is each corner by prying up the plastic cover and removing the bolt.

5) Remove the rear plastic sill plate shown in the lower edge of this photo by removing the 2 push pins on the inside (hint: use a small screwdriver to pry the centre of the pin out a 1/4" then pull out the entire pin), remove the plastic finisher plate below the latch, then gently pry the sill upwards to release the retaining clips.

6) Gently pry the panels on the left and right hand sides near the tail lights. You only need to pry far enough to access the tail light wiring. The fasteners will pop when they are released.

7) The tail light converter will be located near the left tail light. Use the following wiring diagram from Nissan:

Make the connections on the left side:

There is a single connection for the right turn signal (green wire) on the right side:

The wire colors correspond to the harness below the plugs. You can also make the connections above the plug by following the wiring colors through the connector. Although I soldered my connections, use can 'Scotch-Loc' connectors for a quick and easy install.

8) The ground connection can be made on the left side using the factory ground bolt:

9) The factory harness contains a 12V power plug on the left hand side. Untape the white plug. I crimped a male blade/quick disconnect and inserted into the connector ensuring it matched up with the light blue power wire. Another method is to just use 'Scotch-Loc' style connectors. If you get it wrong, nothing will power up. You can also use a tester to ensure you have the correct +12V wire.

9) Use your tester or temporarily connect your trailer to verify the stop lamp, turn signals and tail lights.

10) Install the converter using the supplied double sided tape.

11) You can route the trailer wiring and connector into the spare tire well or drill a hole so you can store is in the left side bin. I used some black plastic wire loom to cover and protect the wire. Notice the nice location to store the ball mount... and the full size alloy spare Canadian models get.

12) The single green wire for the right turn signal can be secured along the lower edge of the door sill once it's re-installed.

13) Replace all the panels. I lost some retaining clips during the process. This wasn't a big deal as I was able to retrieve them and re-install them.

Here is my 1.25" Curt mfg Hitch. Very low profile IMHO.

[websfear]

You might want to consider a rubber gromet for the hole you made. Yes the hole is in plastic, but even plastic can be sharp enough to cut through the wire insulation.

[philipa_240sx]

You might want to consider a rubber gromet for the hole you made. Yes the hole is in plastic, but even plastic can be sharp enough to cut through the wire insulation.

Yes, it's a hard point and a source of abrasion. I will add a grommet of sorts. Thx.

[kerrton]

Philip and others who've done this, where did you purchase your wiring kit from, and what was the approx. cost?

Also, I didn't see how you ran the wire down to your hitch, and how you attached it to the hitch (the end that you plug in to the trailer).

[philipa_240sx]

I bought my trailer light harness from Action Van & Truck World but any place that sells trailer accessories should have it. I still strongly recommend using the Professional Wiring Products harness, much easier and cheaper to install... no splicing required:

http://redirectingat.com/?id=5...770b0

As for the trailer connector. I did not route mine outside, simply open the hatch, pull out the harness from the spare tire area, then carefully close the hatch taking care not to pinch the wire.

1) It protects the harness and wiring from corrosion.2) It makes for a cleaner appearance.

If you wish to route yours outside next to the trailer harness, I would do the following:

- Route the wiring via the 'vent flap' located on the drivers side rear quarter panel. It's right next to the mud flap, behind the bumper fascia. If you remove the cargo area trim and reach down from the inside, you can 'feel' it.

- You can purchase a small bracket similar to the one Nissan supplies with it's hitch to mount the harness plug:

http://www.etrailer.com/p-18144.htm

[kerrton]

I think we should add this to the "how to" section.....

I got my wiring kit installed last night, it took me 1.5 hours, majority of the time is spent disassembling panels to access the wiring.

This wasn't really a fun project, not too bad but not great fun either, mainly because pulling the plastic panels off where they're held on with plastic clips is unnerving, because you have to pull really hard and it seems easy to break. The Rogue uses the standard friction fit clips that have no good way of releasing other than just pulling really hard. Some panels are held on with bolts it's these are really simple to remove.

I learned that the wiring diagram and Philips description didn't help very much at all (no offence Phil, I really appreciate you putting this together nonetheless), since the wire colors on the Rogue didn't match up to the colors on my kit, and it was hard to tell what wires the photos were showing. It didn't matter because the process is much simpler than the instructions imply, all you do is find where the wire enters the tail light, go "upstream" of there about 4 inches where there is a plastic connection, unplug it and plug in the kit wire. There is only one possible place that your kit wire will plug in so it's impossible to screw it up. The 4 wire goes on the left side, and single green wire goes on the right side, plug in the power and ground and you're done. That kit really is awesome, it's just plug and play, very easy (I'm a complete rookie in terms of wiring etc., no skills or knowledge whatsoever and I managed to hook this up).

One suggestion would be to NOT fully remove the side plastic panels, just pull off the part that coves the inside of the tail light so you can slide your hands in, this will save a lot of unneccessary trouble removing the whole side panel, and less chance of screwing up the panels or the clips, when you only need to access the one end near the tail light.

Modified by kerrton at 8:03 AM 8/17/2009
Modified by kerrton at 8:04 AM 8/17/2009

[kerrton]

Hey Philip,

Do you mind telling me where you got your ball mount from? I'm shopping for mine right now and boy is there ever a lot of variety and a lot of price differences, all I want to do is borrow my friends seadoo for the weekend but this is a little more involved than I thought, even though I have the hitch and wiring already installed.

How high of a rise does your bar extension have roughly, and what size ball diameter do you have (I know I have to check the sea doo trailer coupler for my project, but I'm just curious). Thanks a lot.

[kerrton]

Anyone else purchase a draw bar/ball mount and ball for their Rogue? The best deal by that I've found was from Philip's source etrailer.com.

The problem is that there is a ton of variation in the rise or drop in the ball mount, and I don't know which one will accomodate the most common trailers that I may tow in the future. Example, I'll likely rent a Uhaul trailer for some moving coming up, and my friend has a small utility trailer that I plan to use to haul away some sod, and my friend has a Seadoo that I've offered to pull for him this month.

Can I expect that these trailers will all have roughly the same trailer coupler height? If there is a standard for these small trailers, I need to translate that into a ball mount bar rise height, any help would be much apprecaited, thanks!

[philipa_240sx]

Actually I kept my 1-1/4" receiver ball mount from my Altima. It's Hidden Hitch #3592. It's reversible for either drop or rise. IIRC I have it configured for approx 2" rise and use a 1-7/8" ball. It's fits my neighbour's 9x11' landscape trailer just fine.

Ball size does varies, but 1-7/8" or 2" seem to be very common.

I'm not really sure if there is a 'standard' for trailer hitch height. It varies. If you have a 2" receiver, you can buy adjustable ball mounts for them. As a general rule of thumb, you want the get the trailer reasonably level. Too much tilt can result in some unusual handling traits.